Going solar: Leary family puts sunny slant to their 1927 home to save on water heating costs

Republican photo by DAVE MOLNARRachel and Peter Leary installed solar panels on the roof of their 1927 Longmeadow home to heat their water and save money.

As fans of the home improvement television show “This Old House,” Peter M. and Rachel B. Leary learned about solar panels and were partly inspired to install them in their Longmeadow home for their hot water use.

And as an environmental engineer, Rachel was aware of the benefits of solar energy. So the couple about four years ago conducted research on whether to take advantage of that power source.

Following the research – and anticipating a high volume of hot water use for the family that also includes two young sons, Parker, 7, and Gordie, 5 – they spent about $11,000 to install three solar panels on the roof’s southern side of their 1927 home.

The biggest advantage they see to the system in their four-bedroom Dutch Colonial house is saving money.

“It’s great to go weeks in the summer without hearing our furnace kick on to generate hot water. If you are organized you can plan a lot of your hot water use for during the day,” said Rachel, 37. “As we have replaced appliances such as our dishwasher and washing machine, we have bought units with delayed start timers.”

And on sunny days in the winter, the panels continue to provide heated water, Peter said.

“There’s a small savings each month during the winter. We still get the benefit of year-round savings,” he said.

Another perk to using the solar panels was the money they received as incentives from state and federal tax credits, totaling $3,000, which along with the need for less oil consumption for heating their water, helped offset some of the overall cost of the system, they said.

The couple last filled their oil tank in April, but with the solar system easing the reliance on the oil, they anticipate not filling it again until September, a estimated savings of $500, Peter said.

Rachel conducted research and found a Springfield solar panel company, called Solar Wrights Inc. (now Alteris Renewables), that first conducted an on-site visit to determine if the home was a good fit for a solar energy system. The house was “perfectly situated” as the back of it faces south where the panels were ultimately installed, said Peter, an IT consultant. And as a bonus, having the panels on the back side of the house did not negatively affect the look of the home, he said.

Special piping was installed in the Learys’ attic to connect the panels on the roof down to an insulated water tank in the basement. Fluid gets heated in the panels by the sun and then gets pumped down into that tank and heats the water.

The Learys do not see any drawbacks to going solar for their hot water use, even with the upfront costs to install the system, which they expect to recover in savings within four to five years.

“There is also some personal satisfaction in knowing you are being more efficient with your energy use. We have two children, so we do a lot of laundry and a lot of dishes – it all adds up,” Rachel said.